Son of the Blood Warrior and Undersea Pirate
by Right-2-Left
Summary: She was young. But then again, so was he. They both had bloodstains marring their skin, some was even their own. First, it was their anger tying them together. Then, it was their son. [Oneshot.]


**Synopsis: **She was young. But then again, so was he. They both had bloodstains marring their skin, some was even their own. First, it was their anger tying them together. Then, it was their son.

**Readers, **my curiosity over how the hell Sha'lain'a and Manta hooked up will not be satiated until I get it in the form of the companion comics or the show. Also, hellsguillotine inspired me with a post on the Manta side of things.

_I am playing in the sandbox offered by Young Justice. That is all. I only own the unfamiliar._

Warnings: coarse language, violence, gore, minor themes of sexuality, ableism, child abuse, parental fear

* * *

**Son of the Blood Warrior and Undersea Pirate**

* * *

_The girl with the bloody spikes in her hair came up from the waves and met a pirate with boots too big and a voice trained in prevarication…_

She took her first steps on land when she was 14-years-old.

The older, mysterious, criminally bad human boy enthralled her a year later.

He said to call him David.

He was beautiful. Brilliant. He knew exactly how the systems worked and he played in them like a child with a new toy.

He whispered in the dark, _'you and me, one day, we'll rule the world,'_ his voice like the irreparable chunks of sugar cracked off from the cherry lollipop she first tasted on the surface.

She preened in the attention. He didn't loathe her fair hair, a symbol of her so-called curse, he didn't reel back at her gills, and he wanted _her_. He smirked the first time she broke a man's jaw in front of him.

'_fuck, you're gorgeous'_

For the first year she thought he just wanted something from her, like all the rest did. He was never as good a liar as she was though, at least, not to people he liked. She learned in the second year that he genuinely liked her and he could never deceive the people he felt that kind of affection for.

'_beautiful'_

It was the first time someone who didn't pay her to please them called her that.

She was 16 and he was older and he knew more than anyone else she knew about biology, about genetics, about mechanical engineering. He was brilliant in every sense of the word. He knew about systems. He had scars on his body from when people used him like they used her. He told her about his secrets, and she told him hers.

'_they thought they could beat it out of me, thought that hurting me would make it go away'_

'_my parents told me I was meant for great evil'_

'_there were blades, a lot of blades, I learned how to use them and to use them against them. I know how to use blades'_

'_I fucked literal Kings and I beat up generals, they paid me to do it to them, then they tried to kill me so I killed them back'_

'_the ocean was supposed to save me. it didn't. the ocean never saved me'_

'_Atlantis isn't virtuous. it's as bad as up here, the only difference is that no one up here knows about Atlantis'_

They shared plans and dreams, fears and regrets. They stared at the ocean and she told him stories about Atlantis, about Champions who rose from nothing to become Gods. He taught her how to pick locks, how to hack a computer, how to break into any surface building imaginable.

He was brilliant. It was in their second year that his gang started to grow.

There was the preteen with the supersenses who was crippled by them, until David took him in and made him a suit that allowed him to function in the world. The preteen owed David for life.

There was the boy who ran from the cops who thought he killed some guy. He hadn't, but he was a convenient arrest, looking like he did and being on the same block as the dead guy. His sister came with him. They were the only family they had left. They stuck together through everything.

The first thing Sha'lain'a helped the gang with was destroying the real killer. His finances fell apart within a week. She pretended not to hear or see anything when he fell off a skyscraper. The siblings stayed.

They went around, picking up the strays of society, the kids no one seemed to give a damn about. David offered them a way out, playing the part of a Good Samaritan. They pretended to be friends, but they were never friends. For every new recruit, David solved their most pressing problem and then cut them off from everyone else until the only way they could function was by being with him.

He was building his empire.

'_you and me, one day, we'll rule the world'_

There was a boy, younger than her, who got recruited. A runaway from bad parents who felt guilty leaving his little sister behind. David got the sister with some good people. He gave the boy food, a roof, and a purpose _'we'll remake everything'_ that was impossible to deny. David had always been persuasive.

Calvin Durham remained one of David's loyal followers for nearly a decade.

Sha'lain'a stayed with David for 3 years. She left when his quick-growing gang was hitting its stride.

'_I thought we were going to rule the world'_

'_we were kids then. now, I just want a life'_

'_you have one, a purpose'_

'_that's your purpose, not mine'_

He was angry. She was no stranger to anger though, and he had never scared her.

There wasn't anyone who could stop her.

He had been fascinating, brilliant, once. But he had turned into someone who was never sated, always jaded, and entirely too captivated with one idea he never thought all the way through. He was still captivating, but infinitely more dangerous.

She left. Gave birth to their son months later.

David came back and said to call him Black Manta. She never did.

Years later, she came face-to-face with David again, their son behind her and King Orin slowly rising.

'_I knew from the moment I met you I wouldn't be able to convince you to do anything you didn't want to do'_

'_then why did you try?'_

'_I was a fool then, pretending to be a king'_

'_and now?'_

'_I am a king'_

'_you're still just a man, David'_

'_a man who has never stopped you'_

'_yes'_

That was the day Kaldur learned his birth-father's identity. The day his Team of fellow teenagers learned never to cross Sha'lain'a. David never attempted to make it seem as though he had ever beaten Sha'lain'a at anything. He hadn't, really. In the end, she had always won.

oOoOo

"Sir-"

David sat up sharply, his vision clearing to be filled not by the memories but by the chrome and obsidian metal of his primary Manta-Sub. Standing in the doorway to his office was one of his Lieutenants, Aaron Wells.

Aaron Wells had been sick, once upon a time. Now he had the medication he needed, he had a home. He would be loyal to Black Manta for the rest of his life, which would likely be rather short considering what they did.

"What is it, Wells?" David snapped.

"Sir, the…Tigress is back, with Kaldur'ahm. There was an…incident."

Fear and anger flooded his veins. He was well aware that his son could care for himself. The fact that he had survived when facing against the people he had attested to that. However, that would never change the fact that Kaldur'ahm was his son.

He schooled his expression into one that spoke of his anger but kept his fear carefully hidden, and he rose, "What incident, Wells?"

"The Martian, she…Kaldur'ahm appears to be – he was attacked telepathically and we cannot get him to respond."

David darted past Wells, dragged the Lieutenant with him, and snapped for a clearer explanation.

Wells hurriedly gathered himself and sprinted after David, explaining, "The Martian girl, Miss Martian, she attacked Kaldur'ahm telepathically and, as Tigress explained, brain-blasted him. He's in a coma right now. Breathing, but unresponsive."

David felt breath returning to his lungs at the statement that his son was breathing.

_He's alive. That's good. He's alive. Good._

He charged into the infirmary, barely glancing at the Halloween of Tigress' uniform as she turned sharply with her dark eyes wide behind her mask. Instead his eyes traveled right to the bed where his son was lying, still in his Manta-Suit, with his eyes open but his expression blank. Horribly blank.

David felt like vomiting. His organs slammed back sharply though, refusing to respond properly.

His armoured hands hit the mattress, soft against the hard angles and contours of the shining metal. Vaguely he heard his voice snapping out orders on instinct. Wells retreated.

"He…he's alive. His mind is hurt," Tigress' voice cracked on the first word but she quickly recovered and ploughed ahead stubbornly. "I think he might be able to recover, but I'm not sure."

David twitched.

'_I will be fine, it's just a flesh wound, David'_

'_of course it is'_

'_you were worried' Sha'lain'a laughed, 'don't lie'_

David's voice reverberated in the small room, deceptively calm, "Go."

"Sir?"

"Leave me with my son."

Tigress left.

The sound of the door sliding shut was deafening in the silent room.

One moment passed.

Two.

"Kaldur," David forced his voice not to shake. He repeated, louder, his eyes trained on his son's face, "Kaldur'ahm."

Kaldur was not a particularly physical person but Sha'lain'a had been. Maybe that was something that had been passed on.

David reached out and rested a hand on his son's forehead, pressing cold armour to the cool flesh of the half-Atlantean.

"Kaldur'ahm, my son."

Nothing.

"Your mother – matim – would be very disappointed in you ignoring me. She would be displeased. It is likely that she would prefer it if you punched me, actually, like she did the last time I saw her."

Nothing.

"I will contact Sha'lain'a and she will tell you how disappointed she is."

Nothing.

"Kaldur'ahm."

Nothing.

"My son."

Nothing.

"Respond immediately."

Nothing.

David moved quickly. With impressive dexterity and knowledge borne from having designed and built it he began to remove Kaldur's Manta-Suit. The pieces clattered to the ground, his usual careful attention to equipment being replaced by a sudden unrelenting need to free his son of any restraints, whether they be by his making or anyone else's.

As long as he breathed David would not allow his son to be restrained. His son was meant for great things. Greater even, David knew in his bones, the Manta-Suit. Kaldur'ahm was only 21 now and David would be fooling himself if he claimed that he believed Kaldur'ahm had already reached his full potential.

Kaldur had decades of life yet left. David would do everything possible to ensure that his son was able to spend those decades proving that the term _'impossible'_ was only created by people who wished to make excuses for failing.

'_you just need to make them think that they won, see?'_

'_I already knew that, David. how else would I have survived?'_

David lifted Kaldur so that he could pull the sheet out from beneath his body.

Wells' voice came with the sound of the door sliding open, "Sir, I can-"

"I told you to leave," David said, setting Kaldur down. David turned, letting the sheet fall on Kaldur's legs. He faced Wells, "Why are you back?"

"You have a call."

'A call' always meant that The Light was contacting him. They knew then, about the situation. _Perfect._

"I can-"

David cut Wells off sharply, "No one touches my son."

"Sir," Wells nodded awkwardly then retreated sharply.

David turned back to his son and silently pulled the sheet over him, up to his chest. Kaldur looked at nothing. The expression was blank but still, somehow, reminded David of the expression he had when he was young. He had realized that no matter how much he achieved Sha'lain'a would never forgive him, would never let him be a father to his son.

David understood her decision. The criminal life was not a good one to raise a child in, not the best one to raise a child with character, with conviction, but that understanding didn't mean much of anything. He still felt everything ripped from him.

'_I want to see my son'_

_Sha'lain'a just looked at him, her forearm firmly against his throat, and hissed,_ _'No.'_

Anger came first. Then desperation. Fear. He bargained.

Now, years later, he was able to be a father to his son and his son wound up in a coma thanks to one of their enemies.

He wondered, sometimes, if Sha'lain'a knew that their son was with him. He knew that she would worry, that if she thought Kaldur'ahm was in danger she would do whatever it took to get him out of danger. He knew that if she knew about this she would, at the very least, punch him. Then she would destroy the Martian.

And so would he.

…_Their son was neither a pirate nor the keeper of bloody spikes; instead he was the lone prince moonlighting as a protective maelstrom._

* * *

**fin.**

* * *

**A/N: **I think my OT3 is now Sha'lain'a/Calvin/David. AKA Badasses Being Badass Together.

Now back to sobbing in my pillow over that last ep.

**R&R**


End file.
